Old-Timer Fugitive Admits He Did It

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) – A 73-year-old Newport Beach man who spent 12 years on the lam after being nailed for a $13 million Internet fraud pleaded guilty Monday to federal mail fraud charges. James Eberhart left the country 15 years ago after federal agents executed search warrants on his boiler-room telemarketing scheme, which he called the YES Entertainment Network, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Eberhart and YES raised nearly $13 million by claiming they were creating an 18-channel entertainment website. But they spent only 1 percent of the money on the website, dished out 45 percent of it to the telemarketers and wired the rest of it to Eberhard’s offshore bank accounts, the U.S. attorney said. Eberhard was busted in Malaysia in 2012, 12 years after he fled the United States. He was living there on a custom-built, 58-foot yacht. He faces up to 10 years in prison at his Dec. 8 sentencing. His associate, Eugene Carriere, was a fugitive for 6 years until he was arrested in Thailand in April 2005. He was sentenced in 2007 to 3 years in prison for mail fraud and ordered to pay $12.8 million in restitution.